Most of the blocked drain cleaning products you find in the supermarket are made with strong chemicals including sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid and potassium hydroxide. These nasty ingredients can be damaging to you and your family’s health and well-being. This danger should be reflected on the label of these products, and will instruct you to keep your children and animals away from these products and to wear protective clothing of some description if you are using them. It is a possibility that they products can even damage your plumbing pipes after you tip the products down your drain through corrosion.
If you do not like using chemicals within your household and are worried about the consequences there are now more environmentally friendly products available, which are made from more natural substances that will not be harmful to your health. But the question is do they clear a blocked drain in Sydney?
WHAT ECO BLOCKED DRAIN CLEANING PRODUCTS ARE AVAILABLE?
The most popular natural drain cleaning product on the market is ACTIZYME pellets. These are made from different enzymes that are blended and work to get rid of the build up of organic waste matter in your drains, for example grease, detergents, hair etc. You can use the product throughout the drains in your household. You need to mix the product with warm water, and then tip it down your drains, and it needs some time to work before you tip water down the drain again.
The other main product available is Bio-Clean and this eco-friendly brand is also capable according to its label of breaking down organic waste material including sewerage, paper and animal fat. It works the same way as the ACTIZYME product, mixed with hot water and then tipped down the drain.
However there are two issues with these products, that are clear once the instructions are read on each product. Firstly, the products take a while to work, if your blockage is in the toilet, and you have only one toilet on your property, you can’t really afford to wait 24 hours for it to unblock in most cases. By that stage depending on how bad the blockage is, sewerage may overflow and flood part of your house or apartment.
Secondly, is that the eco-friendly products only work on matter that is organic in nature. This is fine for blockages caused by food scraps, but what about the rest of the waste that is non organic? Blocked drains in Sydney can be caused by a number of different products including female hygiene products, wet wipes to name a couple. Without knowing what exactly caused the blockage in your drain, you won’t know whether the eco drain cleaning product is capable of fixing it.
DO ECO DRAIN CLEANING PRODUCTS WORK ON BLOCKED DRAINS?
The ACTIZYME product has a lot of mixed reviews online. One unhappy customer stated the following “I followed the instructions on the tub and unfortunately these pellets did not work for clearing my shower drain. I have had an ongoing problem with hair buildup and I used a whole tub of Actizyme Natural Safe Pellets from several attempts to unblock my pipes. All attempts did not work for my situation” said Shane from Perth. However Tezza from Newcastle said “This stuff wks! I just used it an hr ago. I poured the whole container,flushed, then plunged. It didn’t drain right away. Had to flush 4 times & plunge like crazy 4 times…but it works!”
The customer Hazza was unsure..”I chose liquid actizyme; followed the instructions to the letter, and the medieval pong in our bathroom is abating. You must follow exactly the product instructions, and be patient. Hair is the perfect trap for bacteria hence the stink. Night seems to be worse, but this is precisely the time to use the treatment. I’ll buy another bottle and repeat the process, so thus far I rate it three stars and rising.”
Overall on productreviews.com.au had a 3.3/5 rating, but they ranged from 1 up to 5, so it really depends on how bad the blockage is, and what has caused the blockage.
Bio-clean did not seem to have many Australian reviews, however Amazon had quite a few, again both positive and negative. Byron stated “After reading reviews both positive and negative, I decided to give this a try. Problem is slow tub drain. I augered drain pipe through tub overflow, so nothing is in the trap, blockage farther down the line somewhere. Piping is inaccessible, condo, second floor, turns too tight for the small coil auger I have. Was hoping this would help. It did not. I even tried longer than the 5 days instructed to. 9-10 days actually. Count me among those for whom it did not work! Too bad for me!”
A positive review from H.Knapp “Started using Bio-Clean monthly as directed four years ago. No field line clogs or other septic problems since. I had the tank pumped last year as recommended (after 3 years) and the truck operator said it really did not need to be pumped at all. He said he was seeing similar results everywhere Bio-Clean was being used.”
It appears that it really depends on how bad your blockage is, and what is causing it as to whether these products will clear your drain or not.
Other relevant blogs;
CALL A REPUTABLE SYDNEY PLUMBER TO REPAIR YOUR BLOCKED DRAIN
4 Elements Plumbing are experts in clearing blocked drains in Sydney. Around 90% of blocked drains can be cleared using a high pressured water jetter, which does not use chemicals and is an eco-friendly solution that works. It is a quick and efficient way to clear both simple and more complex blockages. If you have a blocked drain anywhere in Sydney, please call our experienced plumbers on 1300 790 930.